Developing Artistic Style, part 2

What are the things I like?

I’ll start with some of my own sculpture that I actually like. I’m sticking to pieces that are my design, rather than copies of someone else’s work. When on courses at the Austria wood carving school one of the major teaching devices is to get you to carve from others designs. Although I like many of these, I don’t really consider them my work.

Developing Artistic Style

This particular journey started whilst touring Pinterest. It is something I have come to realise that I need to do previously, but in a fairly abstract way rather than considering a research-based approach. This is a theme that keep recurring, as in “Newman made Pagan Void two years before he discovered his artistic direction. Like many of his peers, he was interested in Native American art and Surrealism, influences visible in the biomorphic shapes in this abstraction.” (From
https://www.coursera.org/learn/painting/supplement/KojL2/2-1-introduction-to-barnett-newman, part of the “In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting!” course about Barnett Newman. You may have to sign up to view the material, URL Viewed 05 April 2017) This sort of reference occurs many times, and I have observed it in a number of artists. The concept seems to be that an artist tries lots of different approaches and techniques until the find something that they focus on and really get involved with.

In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting!

Back in April this course was suggested on one of the OCA groups: https://www.coursera.org/learn/painting, and so I signed up for it. The idea of the course is a set of videos and material about the New York School of art, which includes approaches of seven New York School artists, including Willem de Kooning, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko. I thought of this as an opportunity to learn to appreciate these artists more clearly. In some ways it is working.